scholarly journals Students from a large Australian university use Twitter to identify difficult course concepts to review during face-to-face lectorial sessions

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
Patricia A. Halpin ◽  
Jeremiah Johnson ◽  
Emilio Badoer

Engaging undergraduate students in large classes is a constant challenge for many lecturers, as student participation and engagement can be limited. This is a concern since there is a positive correlation between increased engagement and student success. The lack of student feedback on content delivery prevents lecturers from identifying topics that would benefit students if reviewed. Implementing novel methods to engage the students in course content and create ways by which they can inform the lecturer of the difficult concepts is needed to increase student success. In the present study, we investigated the use of Twitter as a scalable approach to enhance engagement with course content and peer-to-peer interaction in a large course. In this pilot study, students were instructed to tweet the difficult concepts identified from content delivered by videos. A software program automatically collected and parsed the tweets to extract summary statistics on the most common difficult concepts, and the lecturer used the information to prepare face-to-face (F2F) lectorial sessions. The key findings of the study were 1) the uptake of Twitter (i.e., registration on the platform) was similar to the proportion of students who participated in F2F lectorials, 2) students reviewed content soon after delivery to tweet difficult concepts to lecturer, 3) Twitter increased engagement with lecturers, 4) the difficult concepts were similar to previous years, yet the automated gathering of Twitter data was more efficient and time saving for the lecturer, and 5) students found the lectorial review sessions very valuable.

Author(s):  
Jennie Rose Steres Blake ◽  
Nicola Grayson ◽  
Sami Karamalla-Gaiballa

Traditional investigations into the impact of skills support on student success tend to focus on embedded or curriculum linked modes of delivery. The subject of this investigation concerns a study of the impact of ‘open’ support delivered through the University of Manchester library’s My Learning Essentials skills programme (MLE). MLE is a blended service providing both face-to-face and online support through two dominant pathways: one which is embedded in the curriculum and one which is ‘open to all’ regardless of degree programme or level of study. The ‘open’ nature of this type of support and the variety amongst the student population who engage with it means that measuring the impact on areas such as attainment has always been difficult. This article will present the results of a small study that investigated a specific cohort of undergraduate students in order to assess whether connections could be drawn between attendance at MLE ‘open’ workshops and degree classification. Although the cohort investigated was quite small, there is evidence of significant positive impact on student attainment as a result of engagement with the MLE programme. The data was run through a regression analysis that controlled for factors that could influence attainment and compared attendees of MLE open workshops with those who did not attend. Beyond the results of the regression analysis the study reveals interesting data around student uptake of MLE as a service and presents the methodology used, the results gained, and the lessons learned throughout the process.


Author(s):  
Tzy-Ling Chen ◽  
Yu-Li Lan

<p>Since the introduction of personal response systems (PRS) (also referred to as "clickers") nearly a decade ago, their use has been extensively adopted on college campuses, and they are particularly popular with lecturers of large classes. Available evidence supports that PRS offers a promising avenue for future developments in pedagogy, although findings on the advantages of its effective use related to improving or enhancing student learning remain inconclusive. This study examines the degree to which students perceive that using PRS in class as an assessment tool effects their understanding of course content, engagement in classroom learning, and test preparation. Multiple, student-performance evaluation data was used to explore correlations between student perceptions of PRS and their actual learning outcomes. This paper presents the learning experiences of 151 undergraduate students taking basic chemistry classes and incorporating PRS as an in-class assessment tool at the National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan. While the research revealed positive student perceived benefits and effectiveness of PRS use, it also indicated the need for further studies to discover what specific contribution PRS can make to certain learning outcomes of a large chemistry class in higher education.</p><br />


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 5948-5953
Author(s):  
Sujatha.U , Bhuvaneshwari Palanisamy

The role of instructors in face to face and online instruction has few things in common but many things in contrast. Other than the strong foundation of knowledge, traditional classroom teachers have more responsibilities like adaptability, motivating and encouraging active participation, listening to students, enhance collaboration with other students, etc. Traditional classroom teachers create a new society and an active learning environment for the students inside the classroom whereas the role of online instructors is contravening and never-ending. In online instruction designing a course, content delivery, activities, assignments, and examination are done in the absence of students. The flexibility in online learning, though communication is done through electronic media to an extent, considerably reduces the interaction between the teachers and learners and makes either of them to work in isolation. This paper discusses the advantages, disadvantages, and other aspects of face to face and online learning


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Amel Thafer Alshehry

<p><em>This paper describes the perceptions of undergraduate students and their advisors on the role and challenges of academic guidance in Saudi Arabia. For this, five focus groups comprising six to eight students and one advisor were interviewed, and their responses to four questions were qualitatively analyzed. The responses from all groups emerged in four major themes, two related to the student’s perspectives and two related to those of the advisors. Overall, the students identified the unfamiliarity with the purpose of academic guidance and a failure of their advisors to follow their progress as the primary challenges. The advisors highlighted the lack of student feedback and academic guidance training as the obstacles to successful student progress. The findings presented here suggest that universities should incorporate student and advisor feedback into the academic guidance systems to ensure student success.</em></p>


Author(s):  
Sarah Ransdell ◽  
Sandrine Gaillard-Kenney

Purpose: Online discussion within blended learning environments is essential to student success in a well-designed course. Our research briefly describes ways in which online discussion can be evaluated to predict student learning. The paper will present some online data regarding active and passive use of Web-CT-based course content as it relates to student performance. Methods: Thirty-seven RN (Registered Nurse) to BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) students in a blended online and face-to-face biostatistics course participated in this research for 15 weeks. Results: Students who were engaged in active, original postings to discussion threads in response to relevant, course-based reading were most likely to do well, regardless of the total frequency of their visits to the discussion site. Students who engaged in frequent, but passive, less relevant postings did not do as well in terms of midterm quizzes or final grades. Discussion:Qualitative discussion rubrics can be labor-intensive; in large classes, it may be possible to supplement them with quantitative, Web-CT records of overall postings, original postings, follow-up postings, and total visits in order to determine which students are using discussion as a useful tool.


2017 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 496-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel K. Thiet

Many high school and undergraduate students enter science courses feeling intimidated by course content and unsure of their abilities. Teachers are frequently challenged in mixed-level and interdisciplinary courses to ascertain and honor students’ levels and areas of experience. In these cases, the application of critical pedagogy techniques can create a culture of caring and thereby allay student anxiety and increase student motivation and success. Here I describe a simple instant polling exercise that employs critical pedagogy to stimulate dialogue about students’ experiences with course content. This exercise is especially useful for mixed-level and interdisciplinary science courses, and can be easily adapted for small or large classes.


Author(s):  
Josep Vidal-Alaball ◽  
Jordi Franch-Parella ◽  
Francesc Lopez Seguí ◽  
Francesc Garcia Cuyàs ◽  
Jacobo Mendioroz Peña

This retrospective study evaluates the effect of a telemedicine program developed in the central Catalan region in lowering the environmental footprint by reducing the emission of atmospheric pollutants, thanks to a reduction in the number of hospital visits involving journeys by road. Between January 2018 and June 2019, a total of 12,322 referrals were made to telemedicine services in the primary care centers, avoiding a total of 9034 face-to-face visits. In total, the distance saved was 192,682 km, with a total travel time saving of 3779 h and a total fuel reduction of 11,754 L with an associated cost of €15,664. This represents an average reduction of 3248.3 g of carbon dioxide, 4.05 g of carbon monoxide, 4.86 g of nitric oxide and 3.2 g of sulphur dioxide. This study confirms that telemedicine reduces the environmental impact of atmospheric pollutants emitted by vehicles by reducing the number of journeys made for face-to-face visits, and thus contributing to environmental sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 238212052110377
Author(s):  
Paige Eansor ◽  
Madeleine E. Norris ◽  
Leah A. D’Souza ◽  
Glenn S. Bauman ◽  
Zahra Kassam ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The Anatomy and Radiology Contouring (ARC) Bootcamp was a face-to-face (F2F) course designed to ensure radiation oncology residents were equipped with the knowledge and skillset to use radiation therapy techniques properly. The ARC Bootcamp was proven to be a useful educational intervention for improving learners’ knowledge of anatomy and radiology and contouring ability. An online version of the course was created to increase accessibility to the ARC Bootcamp and provide a flexible, self-paced learning environment. This study aimed to describe the instructional design model used to create the online offering and report participants’ motivation to enroll in the course and the online ARC Bootcamp's strengths and improvement areas. METHODS The creation of the online course followed the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (ADDIE) framework. The course was structured in a linear progression of locked modules consisting of radiology and contouring lectures, anatomy labs, and integrated evaluations. RESULTS The online course launched on the platform Teachable in November 2019, and by January 2021, 140 participants had enrolled in the course, with 27 participants completing all course components. The course had broad geographic participation with learners from 19 different countries. Of the participants enrolled, 34% were female, and most were radiation oncology residents (56%), followed by other programs (24%), such as medical physics residents or medical students. The primary motivator for participants to enroll was to improve their subject knowledge/skill (44%). The most common strength identified by participants was the course's quality (41%), and the most common improvement area was to incorporate more course content (41%). CONCLUSIONS The creation of the online ARC Bootcamp using the ADDIE framework was feasible. The course is accessible to diverse geographic regions and programs and provides a flexible learning environment; however, the course completion rate was low. Participants’ feedback regarding their experiences will inform future offerings of the online course.


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